NEW YORK — Detectives investigating Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial slayings have launched a painstaking search in a thatch of woods nearly 50 miles from where the victims’ bodies were discovered, according to reports.

The search, which is being conducted off the Long Island Expressway near Exit 70 in Manorville, is part of the Gilgo ...Read more

NEW YORK — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign over her handling of the Gaza protests ahead of an afternoon campus visit with Jewish students, who say they feel unsafe amid campus unrest.

“President Shafik has shown to be a very weak and inept leader,” Johnson said...Read more

NEW YORK — Publishing honcho David Pecker’s testimony this week at Donald Trump’s Manhattan trial opened a rare window on an unholy alliance that helped propel Trump into the Oval Office and spawned a vortex of unflattering stories smearing his political opponents and manipulating news cycles to divert the attention of the American ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Outside the front steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, anti-abortion groups and abortion rights advocates battled to make their stances known, each wielding signs, stickers and blaring PA systems.

Inside the court’s cool marble walls, the tension over abortion access — specifically whether Idaho can enforce ...Read more

Five military horses, including one that appeared to be covered in blood, stomped through central London Wednesday, where they ran into a double-decker bus, a taxi and other vehicles, according to the BBC.

The spooked animals reportedly got loose when building materials were dropped next to them during a rehearsal for The King’s Birthday ...Read more

From your 30s to well into your 60s, a new study proposes working a mentally challenging job can pay off in more ways than one. It can even help maintain your cognitive health while preventing dementia later in life.

“Our results show the value of having an occupation that requires more complex thinking as a way to maintain memory and ...Read more

Hamas released Wednesday a propaganda/proof of life video of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

The 24-year-old was one of the hundreds of people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. He’s one of 133 hostages remaining in Gaza, though dozens of them are believed to be dead.

In the heavily edited video, which is also ...Read more

SACRAMENTO — Arizona abortion providers could practice in California under a new law designed to provide care to women who cross the state line as they face newly restrictive prohibitions at home.

The bill introduced on Wednesday aims to expedite temporary authorization for those Arizona doctors to practice in both states and is the latest ...Read more

CHICAGO — When organizers announced their plans for an open swim in the Chicago River in September, residents across the city raised their eyebrows.

The days when the river was a dumping ground for the largest slaughterhouse in the world are long past. And, sewage that once flowed directly into the river is now funneled through wastewater ...Read more

MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis offered a theory Wednesday about why boats carrying Haitian refugees aren’t arriving on Florida’s shores, even as the Caribbean nation’s capital is largely ruled by violent gangs.

The reason, DeSantis said, is people who might want to leave Haiti don’t try because they know if they’re found on the open ...Read more

BALTIMORE — When the Francis Scott Key Bridge was inspected in May 2021, it earned high marks.

Its railings and guardrails met modern standards. Its foundations were “stable” and didn’t show signs of erosion at the riverbed. The protection around its piers was “functioning,” the best grade in that category.

It wasn’t, however, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a $95.3 billion emergency spending bill that will send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Pacific partners, capping a dramatic week that culminated with a rare bipartisan outcome.

“When our allies are stronger, we are stronger,” Biden said. “I’m making sure the shipments start ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices voiced doubt Wednesday about a strict Idaho law that would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion even for a woman who arrives at a hospital suffering from a serious, but not life-threatening, medical emergency.

Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth B. Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion — the subject of a case pending before the Supreme Court — has become part of a complicated debate on what constitutes a medical emergency urgent enough to necessitate an abortion in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

In arguments before the high court Wednesday, the federal ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr., a former Newark, N.J., city council president who followed his trailblazing father to Congress, has died at age 65, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday.

“With his signature bowtie, big heart and tenacious spirit, Donald embodied the very best of public service,” Murphy said in a statement...Read more

NEW YORK — An NYPD chief and several of his officers were chased down a Manhattan street by pro-Palestinian NYU protesters who forced the cops to retreat into a campus building, startling video shows.

NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy, the head of Patrol Borough Manhattan South, was helping two cops in riot gear complete the arrest of a ...Read more

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ latest budget proposal includes restored funding for the NYPD, but doesn’t reverse a multi-million dollar cut to the city’s public library systems, sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News on Wednesday, raising the specter of additional service reductions at library branches across the five ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department on Wednesday finalized a rule requiring airlines to automatically refund consumers for canceled or significantly delayed flights, and another that mandates disclosure of extra fees, like checked bag charges.

The rules, flowing from the Biden administration’s promises to crack down on so-called junk...Read more

U.S. students will soon see reduced added sugars in school meals nationwide as part of an overhaul of the nation’s nutrition standards announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

As part of the agency’s nutrition makeover, added sugars — sugars and syrups added to foods or beverages when processed or prepared — will be ...Read more

New technologies are making it easier for companies to fix prices and discriminate against individual consumers, the Biden administration’s top consumer watchdog said Tuesday.

Algorithms make it possible for companies to fix prices without explicitly coordinating with one another, posing a new test for regulators policing the market, said ...Read more